The unofficial, unauthorized view of Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org. The Ancestry Insider reports on, defends, and constructively criticizes these two websites and associated topics. The author attempts to fairly and evenly support both.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

TGN and Ancestry.com Sold

FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE

The Generations
Network, Parent Company of Ancestry.com, to be Acquired by Spectrum Equity Investors

Investment
Will Support and Accelerate Company’s Strategic Direction and Growth Plan

PROVO, UTAH– October 17, 2007 – The Generations
Network, Inc., today announced that Spectrum Equity Investors will lead an investment
of $300 million to purchase a majority interest in the company. Spectrum, a private
equity firm based in Menlo Park and Boston, has been a shareholder in The Generations
Network since 2003. Following the transaction, Vic Parker and Ben Spero from Spectrum
will serve on the company’s new board of directors, along with Tim Sullivan, President
and CEO of The Generations Network. Additional terms of the transaction were not
disclosed.The acquisition is subject
to customary regulatory and closing conditions and is expected to close in 2007.

The Generations Network’s portfolio of sites and products includes Ancestry.com
and seven international Ancestry sites, myfamily.com, Rootsweb.com, Genealogy.com,
Family Tree Maker® and Ancestry Magazine. The company’s current management team
will continue to lead the company.

“As an investor in The Generations Network for the past four years, we have watched
the company revolutionize the family history category by leveraging the power of
the Internet to make it more accessible and easy for anyone,” said Vic Parker, Managing
Partner, Spectrum Equity Investors. “Ancestry.com and myfamily.com are clear category
leaders in the growing and rapidly evolving family history and family networking
markets. We are excited to partner with The Generations Network management team
to continue growing this truly unique company that has the power to impact users
at a very personal and emotional level.”

Ancestry.com is the world’s leading online family history
resource, with more than 5 billion names from historical records, unmatched and
proprietary search technologies and an engaged and passionate community of more
than 2.5 million active members.

A redesigned Ancestry.com experience has transformed
an online research tool into a platform for aggregating the world’s family history
memories. Since late July 2006, more than 3.8 million family trees have been created
on Ancestry.com, over 330 million names added to Ancestry Family TreesTM,
and more than 3.5 million individual photos, stories, or scanned documents have
been uploaded by members.

Ancestry.com now boasts the only completely indexed online U.S. Federal Census Collection
(1790-1930), the most comprehensive online compilation of U.S. ship passenger lists
(1820-1960), the largest online collection of African American historical documents
and the most comprehensive online collection of U.S. military records.

Beyond the United States, the Ancestry global network now includes local country
sites for the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, Italy, France and Sweden.

The recent launch of DNA.ancestry.comTM now extends the Ancestry service into the rapidly growing
field of genetic genealogy.

AncestryPressTM,
a digital publishing platform integrated into Ancestry.com, now gives every family
the ability to create completely unique, professionally printed family history books.

Family Tree Maker®
2008, the No. 1-selling family history software package, is now available online
and in major retail stores throughout North America and Europe.

The redesigned myfamily.com site now has new features, providing families everywhere
a safe, private, and free family home on the Web.

“Spectrum Equity has been an incredibly supportive and strategic-minded investor
in our company for several years, so I am thrilled to have them acquire this majority
interest in The Generations Network,” said
Tim Sullivan, company President and CEO. “2007 has been the company’s most
successful and profitable year to date, and 2008 looks even more promising as we
grow our core businesses further, expand our global presence, and innovate with
new products and services that help us realize our mission to connect families across
distance and time. I appreciate Spectrum’s vote of confidence in our direction and
vision, and I am excited to work even more closely with Vic Parker and Ben Spero
to continue to transform this amazing and unique business into a truly great company.”

Lehman Brothers acted as financial advisor to The Generations Network, Inc. in the
transaction.

2 comments:

Spectrum now holds a majority interest in The Generations Network. Who are the other large stockholders? Will this change see a friendlier, more responsible attitude toward the genealogy community?

I don’t believe that Family Tree Maker® 2008 is the No. 1-selling family history software package. It currently has more bugs than a Houston kitchen. It was released too soon and without complete and proper testing. Will the Spectrum folks address quality control issues?

Let’s see some positive changes. If they have to reach out to Menlo Park and Boston, so be it.

I've heard lots of complaints about UI changes and features that went away, but I hadn't heard quality concerns. Have you reported all the bugs you've found?

I haven't heard whether FTM 2008 is the no. 1 selling family history software package. I wouldn't expect they would make that claim so early in its release. Does TGN claim 2008 is #1? Or do they claim that FTM (no version mentioned) is no. 1?

Reach out to Menlo Park and Boston for positive changes? Those're fighting words and I'm too tired tonight. Come back some other day. Bring it on!

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The Ancestry Insider is consistently a top ten and readers’ choice award winner. He has been an insider at both the two big genealogy organizations, FamilySearch and Ancestry.com. He was Time Magazine Man of the Year in both 1966 and 2006. And he really is descended from an Indian princess.

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The Ancestry Insider was a readers’ choice for the top four genealogy news and resources blogs, part of Family Tree Magazine’s “40 Best Genealogy Blogs” for 2010. He reports on the two big genealogy organizations, Ancestry.com and FamilySearch. He was named a “Most Popular Genealogy Blogs” by ProGenealogists, and has received Family Tree Magazine’s “101 Best Web Sites” award every year since 2008. A genealogical technologist, the Insider has a post-graduate technology degree and holds a dozen technology patents in the United States and abroad. He has done genealogy since 1972 and has worked in the computer industry since 1978. He was Time Magazine Man of the Year in both 1966 and 2006. And he really is descended from an Indian princess.

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